Dispenser for pressure packed materials



April 12, 1960 R. H. ABPLANALP 2,932,433

DISPENSER FOR PRESSURE PACKED MATERIALS Filed April 18, 1957 E INVENTOR ROBE/Q7 H 146, 4 fi/VKILP ORNEY United States Patent C) DISPENSER FOR PRESSURE PACKED MATERIALS Robert H. Abplanalp, Bronxville, N.Y., assignor of onehalf to John J. Baessler, Bronxville, N.Y.

Application April 18, 1957, Serial No. 653,645

1 Claim. (Cl. 222-394) This invention is a dispenser for aerosol and other pressure packed materials. Such materials comprise active ingredients, such, e.g., as bovine cream, shaving compositions, hand and face creams, foot lotions, shampoos, garbage can sprays, and other deodorants, disinfectants, pesticides, etc. These active ingredients may be solutions, emulsions or dispersions and they may be free iiowing or highly viscous liquids or finely divided solids in suspension in an appropriate liquid vehicle.

The active ingredients are packaged in containers with suitable propellants, such as Freon, butane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and like agents, the function of which is to maintain substantially uniform pressure within the container until all of the active ingredient is discharged therefrom.

Dispensers for these materials commonly comprise an appropriate container provided at its top with a manually operable outlet valve to which is appended a socalled dip tube of uniform bore throughout its length. This tube extends to the bottom of the container and has an open lower end through which the material enters the tube to be discharged through the outlet when the valve is opened.

:It is characterisic of this common, conventional type of dispenser that it must be held in an upright position, or at most only slightly inclined, during dispensing operations. If not so held, the open end of the tube will cease to be immersed in the active ingredient and the propellant will bypass such active ingredient and be exhausted from the container leaving the remaining active ingredient without sufiicient propellant to discharge the same. Most users of these pressure packed products are acquainted with this fact and guard against it. Others improperly use the dispensers and fail to get the benefit of all of the contents thereof.

There are, however, many uses for these products which could be more effectually and easily carried out if it were possible to dispense the materials with the container held in inverted position or on its side. Application of disinfectants to garbage cans is an example of such use. Another example is the application of spray lotions to the feet. I am aware of no pressure packed dispenser which will satisfactorily permit of such use.

. The primary object of this invention is to provide a dispenser of the general character described which may be efliciently employed while held in upright, inverted or in any intermediate position.

I accomplish this object and others by providing the dip tube with a reservoir adapted to be charged with the active ingredient by the inflow of such ingredient from the confines of the container exterior of the tube, while the container is in upstanding position and not in use, so that when the dispenser is subsequently used, the material dispensed is that contained in said reservoir which is under the influence of pressure of the propellant in the container. In practice the reservoir is made with suflicient capacity to contain enough' of the active ingredient to serve for one use of the particular active ingredient 2,932,433 Patented Apr. 12, 1960 employed, such, for example, as sufficient foam forming material for one shave so that under ordinary conditions of operation each use of the dispenser does not require replenishing of the material in the receptacle. The interior of the receptacle is open to the interior of the container through the bottom of the receptacle and may, if desired, be provided with one or more restricted openings at the top of the receptacle, but if these openings are used, they are so restricted as not to permit of the exit of any appreciable amount of the propellant in the event that they are not immersed in the material in the container.

A dispenser having a dip tube provided with a reservoir as described may be used in any position with little if any appreciable waste of the propellant and will function to produce a satisfactory foam, spray or mist, dependent upon the material contained therein.

Features of the invention, other than those adverted to, will be apparent from the hereinafter detailed description and appended claim, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

The accompanying drawing illustrates different practical embodiments of the invention, but the constructions shown therein are to be understood as illustrative, only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Fig. l is a vertical cross section of a dispenser embodying the present invention, shown in upright position.

Fig. 2 shows the same container in inverted position.

Fig. 3 shows the container in horizontal position.

Fig. 4 is a fragmental section of the lower end portion of the dip tube, such as shown in the preceding figures, but provided with restricted openings in the upper portion of the reservoir thereof.

Fig. 5 is a bottom plan View of the dip tube shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is an elevation of a dip tube of modified form.

Fig. 7 is an edge elevation of the parts as shown in Fig. 6.

er y me 'Fig. 8 is a bottom plan view of the structure of Figs.

6 and 7.

In said drawing, 1 designates any suitable form of container in the top of which is mounted an outlet valve housing indicated at 2. Within this housing is a valve having a stem 3 to which is secured a manually operable button 4, which, when pressed by the finger of the operator, will cause opening of the valve. The lower end of the valve housing 2 is provided with a nipple 5 to which a dip tube 6 is attached. The parts as thus far described are conventional, but it will be understood that the button 4 may vary considerably depending on the material to be dispensed, i.e., whether it is to be discharged in the form of a liquid or foam. However, this is immaterial for the present invention is directed primarily to the dip tube 6 which may be used with any appropriate valve and outlet control and with any desired form of container.

The dip tube 6 of the present invention is provided intermediate its ends with a reservoir 7 of any desired shape. This may be made separate from the tube and assembled therewith or it may be formed integral with the tube and produced by expanding a portion of the length of such tube, or it may be molded integrally with the remainder of the tube or produced in any other desired manner without departing from this invention. In any event, it is provided at its lower end with an inlet 8 which is shown in Figs. 1-4, inclusive, as of tubular form, so as to provide for the free flow of mate rial into the reservoir to effect charging of the same.

As shown in the drawings, the propellant It} is of less specific gravity than the active ingredient 9 and thus normally occupies the space above the surface of said active ingredient. However, some propellants which are used in dispensers of this general character, utilize a propellant which is of greater specific gravity than the active ingredient and tend to stratify at the bottom of the receptacle when said receptacle stands idle for a time. In other cases, particularly with emulsions, the active ingredient constitutes the continuous phase of the emulsion in which is dispersed portions of the propellant generally in liquid form and with a vapor space above the emulsion. In still other cases the propellant and active ingredient constitute a true solution, one soluble within the other. The present invention will properly function with any of these types of active ingredientpropellant.

At the time the container is initially filled, the active ingredient and propellant are generally cornmingled with one another and are not stratified. Consequently when the container is initially filled and set upright, the active ingredient will flow into and fill the reservoir and also fill the superimposed portion of the tube up to a level slightly higher than the level of the active ingredient in the container, before Stratification of the constituents takes place. In some cases it is desirable tov carry out the conventional step of scavenging the dip tube by the use of an inert gas after charging the container with both the active ingredient and the propellant, so as to free said tube of residual propellant.

When the dispenser is used for later dispensing operations, the container is always shaken momentarily to condition its contents to be dispensed and consequently, irrespective of the propellant used, the reservoir will always be properly charged with the active ingredient. The dip tube is made of a length to permit the inlet passage 3 to be at the bottom of the container when the container is in upright position and consequently successive dispensing operations will not interfere with proper charging of the receptacle with active ingredient until the contents of the container are practically exhausted. In some cases and with some propellants, it is desirable to make the tube of such length that its lower end will not reach the propellent phase where the propellant is stratified at the bottom of the container.

In practice the receptacle is made of much greater internal cross sectional area and capacity than the ca-' pacity of the conventional tube, so that said receptacle and tube combined, when the reservoir is charged, will contain suflicient active ingredient to serve what would ordinarily be required for one dispensing operation. For example, the receptacle 7 should preferably hold a sufficient amount of liquid shaving soap solution to more than supply enough shaving lather for one shave. This means that the receptacle would have to hold considerably more material than the conventional tube, for the tubes. of dispensers of the kind referred to are invariably of relatively small bore, usually with a diameter of oneeighth inch or less. The use of tubes of relatively large bore is not desirable for many reasons Well recognized by those skilled in this art and said tubes are thus maintained at these small dimensions.

By way ,of example, but not by way of limitation, 2 cc. of active ingredient contained in the receptacle would be more than sufficient for some materials, While with other materials, a greater amount of material would be ordinarily used and the receptacle should be made appropriately larger. However, in any case I preferably make the capacity of the reservoir greater than would be required for one use of the particular material in the container, so that there is always .at least a little active ingredient left in the receptacle after any particular dispensing operation is completed. However, should the dispensing operation be prolonged beyond what is necessary, while the container is inverted, the operator will be immediately apprised of the fact by sound of escaping propellant and will immediately shut ofi the valve in order to permit the receptacle to be recharged with active ingredient. This will occur as soon as the receptacle is returned to upright position.

In Fig. 1 the dispenser is shown in normal upright position which it may partake during use or while standing idle. Under these conditions, the inlet 8 of the dip tube will be below the surface of the material in the container and such material will continue to charge the receptacle during a continued dispensing operation, so that when said operation is completed, the receptacle and remainder of the tube will be fully charged. When the dispenser is set aside, this charge will remain in the tube in the receptacle. If the dispensing operation is carried out with the dispenser in inverted position, the I lower end of the dip tube and the reservoir will be entirely above the surface of the active ingredient and in the zone of the propellant and yet the propellant cannot escape until the entire contents of the reservoir and dip tube have been discharged through the valve. The same result will be obtained when the container is in the horizontal position shown in Fig. 3.

In the construction as thus far described, the receptacle is sealed except for its inlet 8. This is the preferred construction. However, in practice, the receptacle may be provided at its top with one or more restricted openings 11 in addition to the inlet opening 8 at its bottom, as shown in Fig. 4. The advantage of these restricted openings 11 is that they permit more rapid charging of the reservoir after it has been discharged by allowing the exit of any gas which may be present therein into the confines of the closed container.

As hereinbefore stated, the reservoir may be of any desired shape. In Figs. 1-5 inclusive, it is shown as of elongated tubular form with a tubular inlet at its lower end. However, in Fig. 6, the reservoir 7 is shown as relatively short, but of greater cross sectional area so as to give the capacity desired and instead of forming a tubular tip at its lower end, it is shown in Figs. 6-8 collapsed at its lower end to seal the same, except for an inlet 8a of sufiicient size to permit free flow of material into the reservoir from the interior of the container as in the preceding figures.

I wish to make it perfectly clear that the shape and size of the reservoir may vary within wide limits, the criteria being that it has sufficient capacity to permit a normal dispensing operation for the particular active ingredient involved without wasteful exhaust of propellant. To do this the reservoir must have an internal cross sectional area materially greater than the remainder of the bore of the tube and of a length adequate to provide with such diameter the necessary charge to which I have referred. In practice it is preferred, however, that the cross sectional area of the reservoir be no greater than will permit of its introduction through the ,open'top of the container during the assembly of the parts.

The foregoing detailed description sets forth'the inven-. tion in its preferred practical form, but the invention is to be understood as fully commensurate with the appended claim.

Having thus fully described the invention, .what I claim as new and desire ,to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a dispenser for pressure'packed material comprising: a container charged with an active ingredient and a propellant and having a valve housing provided'with a valve and a single dip tube depending from the valve housing to the bottom of the container: the improvement for dispensing a single use quantity of the active ingredient when the container is .either upright or inverted which consists in making a portion of the length of the dip tube closely adjacent the free end of the dip tube of much greater internal cross sectional area than.

the remainder of the boreof said dip tube to form within said tube a reservoir having free and unencumbered communication with the remainder of the bore of the tube and adapted to contain a greater quantity ofthe. active ingredient than said dip tube could contain ifthe.

smaller portion of its bore were uniform throughout the entire length of said tube, said reservoir having at its bottom a constricted feed inlet at all times open and in free communication with the interior of the container to per- Init the free flow of active ingredient through said inlet 6 into said reservoir.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Thompson Dec. 10, 1946 Johnson Nov. 28, 1950 Engstrum Dec. 18, 1956 

